John Altman wants Nasty Nick in Emmerdale

John Altman wants to bring his 'EastEnders' character "Nasty" Nick Cotton to 'Emmerdale', despite his death on the show in 2015

John Altman wants to bring his 'EastEnders' character Nick Cotton to 'Emmerdale'.

The 64-year-old actor was known for playing Nick Cotton - nicknamed Nasty Nick - on the BBC soap from the show's debut episode in 1985 until his character was killed off last year, but has now expressed a wish to take the Walford icon to the Yorkshire village "under a different name".

He said: "I always thought it would be great to see Nick go up to Emmerdale or something under a different name but he is actually the same character."

However, John admits the problem with his plan is the small matter of Nick's death, after he took drugs he claimed "weren't pure" and died in the arms of his mother Dot Cotton (played by June Brown) who refused to call an ambulance.

But John does have a solution for that, claiming the audience never actually saw Nick's body leave the house in which he supposedly died, so there's a chance he could still be alive.

He added: "He'd be being nice and all the viewers would be going mad because they know he's evil. I don't think we could do it now because he's dead. But is he dead? We never saw the body being carried out of the house.

"There's something called suspended animation maybe that happened to Nick?"

Meanwhile, John hit out at the soap that was his home for so many years, claiming the quality had dropped because the show got "too big".

He told The Sun newspaper: "EastEnders lost a lot of heart when it got too big, too many people, the fewer people you've got the better it is."

"When EastEnders went to four days a week it seemed to me as though they were trying to squeeze four pints into a two-pint jug."